Local News

Safety concerns spike at Mass. and Cass, Wu says

The area of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard in Boston has gotten noticeably more dangerous over the past month, Mayor Michelle Wu said.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu takes questions from reporters regarding Mass. and Cass during a press conference in October 2022. Craig F. Walker/Boston Globe

By Ross Cristantiello

August 2, 2023

2 minutes to read

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said Wednesday that public safety concerns regarding the area of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard have spiked in recent weeks. This is prompting outreach workers and police to potentially reevaluate how best to keep people safe in the area, which sits at the epicenter of the opioid epidemic and homelessness crisis.

Speaking with host Jimmy Hills on his program “Java with Jimmy” Wednesday morning, Wu said that the city’s nonprofit partners have raised the alarm to her administration over the past month.

“All of the non-city teams have said in the last few weeks, ‘The situation has gotten so dangerous that we are pulling our people out, we cannot be in there,’” Wu said.

City workers, nonprofit partners, and police see the challenges facing individuals at Mass and Cass as primarily medical, she said, and the need for services there is as high as ever. But large crowds make this more difficult, as getting someone the services they need is easier in a small group or a one-on-one setting, Wu added.

In particular, much of the criminal activity taking place there happens inside tents and out of sight, she said.

“That’s, frankly, where some of the trafficking, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and violence is taking place,” she said. “We are planning to take a major step, I think, in trying to make sure that we are addressing that properly and supporting our law enforcement side with the ability to better maintain public safety because it has gotten to the point where, even those who are experts and do this every single day have said, ‘It has reached a new level that is untenable.’”

Wu did not detail what this “major step” might entail.

She did reiterate that efforts to help those struggling with homelessness and addiction have been successful. Nearly half the people who were originally living at Mass and Cass when Wu came into office have moved through transitional housing to permanent housing because they have changed their lives, she said. The mayor cited low-threshold housing, 24-hour medical support, job counseling, and case management for this fact.

But the success of these services could be leading to more people coming to Boston in search of them, she said. Hundreds of people have come to the city from around the region and around the country seeking services like this, she said.

“No single city can solve this because the better that any city gets at it, the faster they have to try to expand their services, and it’s just not possible,” Wu said.

According to data from earlier this year, Boston has seen a significant increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness. Wu made a point to mention that the majority of people who congregate around Mass and Cass during the day have housing, whether temporary or permanent. The drug trafficking and other activities that regularly occur in the area draw people there, she added.

Although August only just arrived, Wu said that she and other officials need to be thinking about the long-term plan for Mass and Cass now.

“Now is the moment to plan for when the weather gets cold again and when it gets really dangerous on the street,” Wu said. “We have to get going on a different approach.”